– Erin Keane

As a recent college graduate, and a recent resident of the borough of manhattan, I found my apartment in a real need of actual adult furnishing and decorating. I realized that a lot of my friends are having the same problem… their new adult apartment still looked like a dorm room! However, I have come to realize that the right art makes all the difference.  Looking  around Recession Art at Culturefix, I picked out some items for making your college furniture seem like its in a brand new room

- all for under $250.

The first thing you need to decorate any space is an anchor piece. This piece is bold, can hold attention on the wall and of course, is an image you love. The problem with finding a good anchor piece is that large, bold pieces tend to be on the expensive side. That is why I recommend a larger work on paper. George Spencer makes gorgeous acrylics on found posters. Not only is the image of the boxer full of motion, immediately drawing focus, but the found medium makes it a conversation piece. For more information on Spencer, visit http://www.aestheteblog.com/2010/08/19/george-spencer-art-like-an-uppercut/

This is an image of a piece in The Boxer Series 16″x20″ acrylic on wood. RAC has a number of his Untitled pieces of the same series on found paper 18″x24″. Cost $40

Then on another wall you can create a grid of smaller pieces. I like grids of three but four in a square arrangement also looks nice. It all depends on what best fills the space. The important thing is to hang your grid pieces close enough together that they are grouped on the wall. I like picking pieces from different artists to add variety, but using the same artist can add a streamlined and cohesive look to your grid. I recommend using pieces with similar color schemes, since the Spencer piece is black and white I picked three of Theresa Marchetta’s Plastic Print Series that are full of bright colors. http://theresamarchetta.com/ow1.htm Cost $30 each, total of $90.

 Next thing needed are tiny accent pieces. These are nice to fill an empty strip of wall; the space next to a door, or above cabinets. For this I use postcards from art openings I’ve attended.

Most of RAC’s post cards are slightly larger than 4in x 6in so I got three plain black frames in that dimension (for 2.00 each). Then I took the glass out of the frame. I laid it on the front of the post card to plan where I wanted to cut. Then I flipped the card over and marked with a pen where I would cut, and used scissors to crop the postcard to size (for an precise cut you can also use a razor blade and a ruler). After that, I placed the postcard in the frame and hung them on the wall. What I love about this is that it is easy to update with whatever show or event you have seen recently.

I chose two current recession art shows; Gabriela Vainsencher’s Don’t Have No Colleague, and Everything is Index, Nothing is History at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn, as well as an upcoming show Tate Foley’s 100% Stratification Guaranteed or Your Money Back opening Thursday July 12th. Cost $6

http://recessionartshows.com/2012/05/no-colleague-opening/

http://www.theinvisibledog.org/everything-is-index-nothing-is-history/

http://recessionartshows.com/artists/tate-foley/

The perfect way to add some interest to your living room is with a coffee table book. Usually these are large, full color, hard cover books that can go for $90 to $300 dollars, however Recession Art offers a fun alternative with their collection of zines and handmade books. I recommend Estrella Vega’s The Tree of Life ($40) and Dominick Rapone’s Deadalus the Blind Astronaut ($15). These two zines work toegether because of their common theme, but they also contrast because while Deadalus is in classic black and white, Vega’s piece is in full color and 3D; it even comes with the glasses! In addition, RAC just started carrying work from the Brainwaves collection, vastly increasing our zines and books. http://brainwaveszines.tumblr.com/

Image left to right; Estrella Vega 3D Glasses, The Tree of Life, and Dominick Rapone’s Deadalus the Blind Astronaut.

Along with an interesting coffee table book, throw pillows on the couch can spruce up any hand-me-down futon. I recommend Megan Berk’s There’s Always Tomorrow/ There’s Not Always Tomorrow 100% cotton silk screened pillow cases. Cost $25

*Also, if you are handy with a needle and thread you could turn your old tee shirts, which were great for class but not for the office, into pillow cases. Just cut your tees in the shape of your pillow (plus a 1/2 in for the seam) and sew them together to create reversible pillows that compliment Berk’s silk screen version.

Last but not least, add a little something to your fridge with Gabriella Vainsencher Magnets, based on her series Morning Drawing. At $10 each, three gives you a cost of $30. http://gabrielavainsencher.com/

*A great item that just takes a little bit of saving: one of Gabriella’s prints of her Morning Drawing Series, at only $100 they are definitely worth it.

So now its time for the math, all of those prices add up to $246. A full four dollars under our $250 budget!

Come by RAC and see all of the other wonderful pieces that would make a great start to your collection.